The Difference Between A WordPress Page And A Post

I love WordPress and it’s used by almost 76.5 websites on the WordPress.com platform as of this post. It has had more impact around the globe and driving content more than any other open-source CMS platform. I currently manage and develop approximately 10 websites and about 4 of them have WordPress somehow involved. In other words, WordPress is used a lot, by a lot of people!

For the newer users just getting around to finding a platform that will do what they want, they will find that WordPress is a great answer for blogging or to connect with your audience. One of the most common questions I have received from new webmasters is ,”What is the difference between a page and a post?”. Well, a lot actually. At what point you might want to apply them can change depending on the type of website you are creating or the content you are providing. So I am going to explain each of them and give you some examples of when to employ each of them in your development process.

The WordPress Post

If you want to blog (in any form such as word, audio, or video), then this is your workhorse. Posts are the articles that will establish your categories and structure. You do not use a post to write your “About”, “Contact Me”, or even your “Terms” page. Posts are your entries for your visitors or members to enjoy and connect with you through comments and shares. They are automatically ordered by date and presented for chronological reading. They can be organized and tagged with keywords in the Tags section of the administrative side of WordPress. Posts are about 90% of a WordPress site.

When you create a daily, weekly, or whenever article, then you would add a post. In fact, you are currently reading a post. Literally, this article is a post that will be added into the February 2016 file system. You can see in the following example where you can find posts in the screenshot I created using my current homepage.

The WordPress Page

The page is where you can create “static” content, or content that doesn’t change often, if ever. So when I create an “About Me” section, I am going to choose a page. I can easily pop it right into a menu and make it accessible very easily. Pages don’t have tags, because they don’t need them. Tags help people find your content easier, but since you shouldn’t have many pages and their links are usually in the menus that you will create, they don’t need to be tagged. Pages are wonderful for a small website or perhaps a local business that only needs a small number of pages. WordPress is awesome for a quick 10-page website that defines a homepage, services offered, a “contact us” page, and a couple other pages that won’t change very often.

The page is the first thing I setup when installing WordPress. I like to establish these as the foundation of my “online house” before I get to the engaging content. Standard pages to establish would be:

and perhaps pages that are need to be visible and won’t change (price charts, menu, staff, map to store…etc)

Using Them in Harmony

You need both for a great website. You build the strong foundation with consistent and rarely changing pages and you provide fresh content with a post. You create categories for those posts so people can find topics the want to read easily and quickly. When you master the difference of a post vs a page you can quickly harness the power of WordPress. If you have questions about the differences still, just ask in the comments and I will adjust for clarification.

I am a writer, podcaster, and YouTuber. I enjoy talking and writing about technology and science, but also social media marketing and entrepreneurship. I love competitive business and getting to know people.

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